Applying livestock thresholds to examine poverty in Karamoja

In pastoralist and agropastoralist areas, wealth and poverty are closely aligned to levels of livestock ownership and social inclusion. Whereas cash income per capita is a useful measure of poverty in non-pastoralist areas, measures of livestock ownership per capita are needed to understand poverty in pastoralist systems.

The study “Applying livestock thresholds to examine poverty in Karamoja” by Andy Catley and Mesfin Ayele, published in Pastoralism 11:27 (2021), estimated a livestock threshold for agropastoralist households in Karamoja, Uganda, being the minimum per capita ownership of livestock needed to sustain a predominantly agropastoral livelihood. It then applied the livestock threshold to pre-existing livestock population data to estimate the proportions of households above and below the threshold.

Using an estimated livestock threshold of 3.3 Tropical Livestock Units (TLU)/capita for agropastoralism, 57% of households in Karamoja’s main livestock-keeping districts were below the threshold and could be categorised as livestock-poor. The wealthiest 30% of households owned 69% of all livestock in terms of TLUs, whereas – among the poorer households below the threshold – 47% owned only 1.2 TLU/capita or less; 13% of households owned no livestock at all. These findings are discussed, with programming and policy recommendations.

Posted on 15 May 2022 in Pastoralist Livelihoods & Nutrition